Hi, I'm posting this here because I can't find any relevant info on what the full capabilities are to run some games on my Hp Spectre xt Ultrabook. Core i7, 4Gb RAM, Intel HD4000 Graphics.

I can run older games perfectly, but I was wanting to run Skyrim, Borderlands, possibly Crysis 2 and I didn't want to make the purchase without knowing I could run them well enough to play. I've seen older models of HP Spectres running Skyrim to a playable level but I am still tentative to buy it and find out it won't run.

I'm no expert in determining if your Ultrabook can run the games mentioned above, but I think the following links may help you out learning a little bit more about the Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics you have:

You can also check out the handy chart they have on their website that lets you show how well your graphic card (yes, it's on the chart!) can perform on Skyrim and Crysis 2! (I didn't find Borderlands 1)

I don't know about that...I think Ultrabooks were made to be super portable, for the person that is always on-the-go and travelling. Hence, the ultrabook is SUPER light and SUPER thin, downside is, ultrabooks were meant for basic work productivity (unless you got some beefed-up system otherwise) so of course they aren't gonna stuff a Nvidia GTX 660M into a ultrabook, rather, they'll stuff the Intel HD 4000 in order to...keep the laptop thin???

You'll probably be able to run all three. With the settings turned way down and at a relatively low resolution. For future reference, if you plan on gaming on a laptop, check the capabilities of the gpu. CPU and RAM are almost irrelevant for most modern games/pc's. "Ultrabook" is simply a marketing label that Intel uses in order to promote intel hardware on consumer notebooks. Intel GPU's are problematic because, even if they do run a game, they have major issues with keeping their drivers up to date.

In other words. Yes, it'll run old games. Be wary of any newer games, though.

You'll probably be able to run all three. With the settings turned way down and at a relatively low resolution. For future reference, if you plan on gaming on a laptop, check the capabilities of the gpu. CPU and RAM are almost irrelevant for most modern games/pc's. "Ultrabook" is simply a marketing label that Intel uses in order to promote intel hardware on consumer notebooks. Intel GPU's are problematic because, even if they do run a game, they have major issues with keeping their drivers up to date.

In other words. Yes, it'll run old games. Be wary of any newer games, though.

The intel gpu is the most power efficient and best options for integrated for gaming. It will play any modern game reasonably well. portal 2 at bery high at 1366x768 it got 25.3 frames per second. Starcraft on high quality it hit 35.1 seconds

The intel HD will play the modern games just fine despite what others say. It is no gimmick marketing ploy, these are truly ultrabooks in comparison to regular laptops.

The Intel HD 4000 series, found on Ivy Bridge chipsets is on par with current mid-level dedicated GPU's, like the afore mentioned NVidia GTX 630M or the 5600/6500/6700 ATI cards. You probably won't be able to push the graphics to the maximum settings, but you'll be able to play just fine.

Thanks for the input, this is the most info I've seen or received regarding this. Many thanks, and many thanks for keeping the negative comments to a minimum also, I haven't posted much in the past but you've certainly made it easier to do so again in the future.

I have posted a link to prove otherwise, my regular laptop with intel hd 300 on an i3 can do fallout 3 on medium settings at 1024x768. the intel hd 4000 is about double the perfomance on many benchmarks. It is not as good as a dedicated card, but it can do gaming.

Jared: Crysis Warhead is an older game. Yes it'll play at medium settings. As new games come out, though, intel drivers have issues. I have a laptop with an HD3000 on it. It'll play games that were current when it came out, it does have issues with new games that have come out since. That's always an issue for every laptop. The difference is nVidia and ATI tend to put out updates more often.

It notes that, yes, it plays current games at crappy resolutions at low settings quite well. Maybe we have a different definition of settings. I play all my games on a monitor at 1920x1200. That's medium resolution in my book. (High resolution is 2440 and beyond.) 1280x768 is low. Very low. Like I played games at that setting back in the early 90's low.